Food Facts About Food Science

Vanilla flavoring is sometimes made with an ingredient from beaver pee.

Orange juice naturally contains a small amount of alcohol.

Wine will spoil if exposed to light; hence tinted bottles.

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.

When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a maximum rate of 0.028 miles per hour—if it flows any faster, the batch is rejected.

Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half and two-thirds of its vitamin B content.

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.

White wine gets darker as it ages while red wine gets lighter.

Decaffeinated coffee is not 100% caffeine free. When coffee is being decaffeinated, 2% of the caffeine still remains in it.

Bananas contain a natural chemical which can make a person happy. This same chemical is also found in Prozac.

Most alcoholic beverages contain all 13 minerals necessary to sustain human life.

Bacteria that cause tooth decay, acne, tuberculosis, and leprosy can be cured with cashews.

Honey is used sometimes for antifreeze mixtures and in the center of golf balls.

Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from producing tears.

Pumpkin storage rule: the harder the shell, the longer the pumpkin lasts. A hard shell indicates full maturity—and darker orange color is often (but not always) a sign of that maturity.

A peanut is not a nut. It is a legume.

A one ounce milk chocolate bar has 6 mg of caffeine.

Eating a banana can cheer you up!

In 1974, canned food from a boat that sank in 1865 was tested by chemists and was found to be still safe to eat.

Fruit stickers are FDA-approved to be made from edible materials, including food-grade paper and adhesive. While not intended for consumption, they're designed to pass through your digestive system harmlessly if accidentally swallowed.